Overall Rating: ***
Synopsis:
When Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has a premonition of a horrible rollercoaster accidents, she saves a handful of her classmates from a horrible fate. But when the survivors start dieing one by one, Wendy realizes its harder than it seems to cheat death. Can she convince everyone that death has a design for all of them? This is the third installment of the Final Destination series.
Review:
Some people are probably wondering why I gave this movie three stars. In fact I would bet that most people would give this movie one star, two if they were feeling generous. I have to be honest, I liked it. Probably because I’m a fan of the series. Plus its always fun to see what cool and sinister methods they develop to kill all the characters off. I never wrote a review for Final Destination 1 & 2. So if you’re not familiar with the series, here is the critical info: folks somehow cheat death, death’s not happy, death finds more complicated means of killing said folks. The only dissappointment I had with the previous films is that they killed Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) in FD2. I thought she was a good lead character (and potential tie between all of the films).
Anyway, enough about the first two films. This third installment has no characters in common with the previous films. We don’t even see the creepy mortician, William Bludworth (Tony Todd). According to IMDB, we hear him this time, but I can’t remember where that happens in the film. This movie does get a bit of a “teen” facelift, so the acting isn’t stellar. The cast isn’t horrible, but the previous casts were slightly more skilled. I did like how they chose to end the film. It was definitely a nice little ending, but I don’t want to ruin it. I have one complaint about the movie and its the same as my rant for A History of Violence so I won’t repeat it here.
The DVD is pretty cool. I rented it so I didn’t check out all of the features, but there is one feature that’s quite cool. When they made the movie, they filmed several sequences (including the deaths) in different ways. They then created a “Choose Their Fate” version of the film. As you watch the movie, a simple choice will appear before critical junctions in the movie. Based on your choice, characters will live or die. Its actually fun to play with and watch different versions of the movie. It reminded me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books I used to read as a kid, but with far grislier endings. I plan to buy this movie, but I think I’ll wait until the price drops a little. I definitely think its worth the rental, and if you’re a fan of the previous films, a solid purchase. I guess it goes without saying, their is violence, gore, and nudity in this movie so its not for kids.
Enjoy…..